Bullying Has Gone Digital

In the first episode of ANTM the girls talked about how they were bullied in school.

According to and article in The Education Digest, a child is bullied every seven minutes. Bullying has never been as public or widely spread as it is today. The invention of the Internet has allowed for bullying to now follow its victims home. Bullies can victimize whomever they want, whenever they want. Bullies also can do it as much as they want. The Internet also differs from school bullying in that it has virtually no consequence.

There are few laws in place that punish behavior on the Internet. This is something that desperately needs to change. Not only do laws need to be passed to help regulate bullying online, but school districts need to put into place policies to punish students for negative actions on the internet. Calling a student a name on the playground has the same negative effect as calling them the same name online. Therefore they need to have the same consequences. Schools do not like to believe that what students do at home is something they can punish, but when the actions taken online by students cause them to become depressed and lower their grades, then it does become a school issue.

The worst repercussion of unregulated online bullying is suicide. The most recent example of this is Tyler Clementi, a New Jersey college student who committed suicide after a video of him surfaced on the Internet.

I believe that America’s youth needs to be educated about the dangers of the Internet in the same manner that they are educated about the dangers of drugs. Things posted on people’s Facebook now affect if they get into college or not, future internships, and future jobs. Most employers at job interviews will now ask to see your Facebook as part of the interview. How you represent yourself on the Internet is not something that people, especially children and teens, view as important. The reality is that what is placed in the Internet has a greater effect than we realize.

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook and texting are great things. We can keep in contact with people from all over the world and contact people instantly without bothering with a phone call, but these things do have a dark side. It is much easier to bother people and invade their lives when you can text them because you can’t block the number. Also things on Facebook are there for all of your friends to see. The point is to be careful whom you give your number to as well as you let view your profile on Facebook. In the cases of your privacy as well as your safety remember to be careful, before its too late.

Cycle 15 Finale

This week was finale of ANTM Cycle 15. It has come down to Ann and Chelsey. So who will be America's Next Top Model?

This week the girls started off by going out to the middle of the country and getting their beauty shots for the Vogue Italia cover.

Next the girls went and filmed a commercial for CoverGirl. This time though the girls did not have lines to memorize, but got to film it then do a voiceover. The girls were taken around Milan to film. There was a shot were they got gelato, walking around downtown, eating at a cafe, and on a dock.

While one girl did the voiceover, the other went to go shoot the CoverGirl shot. Both girls did a really good job with this. Both of their photos were beautiful.

There was a surprise for the girls when they were filming their commercials; their parents showed up! ANTM contestants rarely get to see family members while filming is going on and this cycle was the first one to have the families not only show up during the finale, but the families also got to watch the girls take their beauty shots and then had front row seats to the girls final runway show for Italian designer, Roberto Cavalli.

Jane, Kayla, Chris, and Liz also came back to do the fashion show with the girls.

For finale judging, wearing fabulous Roberto Cavalli designs straight off the runway the girls went in to see who would be America's Next Top Model.......

Ann was the winner.

I don't know how I feel about this yet. I really liked both girls, but for very different reasons. Ann is shy and considered a 'nerd', but she is very high fashion and takes really awesome photos. Chelsey on the other hand is older and more mature. She has been modeling her whole life and knows the business really well. She also takes really good photos.

I believe that the judges picked Ann because she has improved a lot throughout the course of the show and has the potential to do really well. She is also very high fashion which is what they are looking for.

Below I have placed a video with clips from the finale.

Wanna be on Top?

To watch this episode click here.

I do not own any of these photos. They are the property of CW. You can check out their website here.

Franca Sozzani

This episode started with the girls meeting J. Alexander. He introduced them to an acting coach to help the girls show their personalities more. This is something that Ann and Jane have a real problem with and so it was a good exercise for all of the girls.

Afterward the girls got to meet with Franca Sozzani who is THE editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia.

This was a challenge. The girls had to meet with Franca, show their portfolios as well as their personalities. Andre Leon Tally was there watching as Franca met with the girls one-on-one. He judged who did the best job. The winner of the challenge was Chelsey.

Chelsey won the challenge and picked Kayla to join her. They got to go with Andre Leon Tally to a private showing of The Last Supper by Da Vinci. Then the girls got to stay overnight in the only seven star hotel in Europe.

The next day the girls met up again and were taken to Verona. They met with Tyra, who making her directorial debut, was going to film the girls modeling. It is called an emotion-editorial. The girls were at a villa and dressed in fabulous dresses and were running around all day just filming some really gorgeous shots. To view the finished product click here. (It is pretty neat so you should definitely check it out!)

The guest judge this week was Franca Sozzani. The girls found out that two people were going to be eliminated that night and nerves were running high. Ann got best "video footage" so the elimination came down to Chelsey, Jane, and Kayla.

Chelsey was not eliminated. So this meant that in the finale it will come down to Chelsey vs. Ann.

Wanna be on Top?

To check out CW's website click here.

To watch this episode click here.

Kyle Hagler

This week the girls went on go-sees. They met with Tyra who showed them how to put together their portfolios. They then met with Kyle Hagler who is an IMG Model Executive. Since this was a challenge and they have made it harder than previous cycles, this challenge was no exception. The girls were not allowed to take taxis. They had to use public transportation or walk. They had four appointments all over Milan and had four hours to do it. They had to be back by 6:30. The first one that all the girls went to was at Versace. They got to walk for them and Ann is the only one that they would have hired.

However Ann (and Kayla) did not make it back in time and were disqualified. The other bad part about this was that Chelsey is the only one who went to more than one go-see. (She went to two)

Chelsey was the challenge winner and won a jacket from Versace.

The next day the girls were taken to their photo shoot. They went to a villa on Lake Como and this had to be one of the best photo shoots settings that they have ever done. The girls were painted all in white and wearing white and were supposed to be statues that were coming to life. They got to pose with a male model and all did pretty well. I have posted Chelsey and Janes photos down at the bottom because I personally thought that theirs were the best. Best photo however went to Kayla.

At the judging though the girls had to state how many go-sees they went on and they were disappointed in all of the girls. They believed that the girls had time to go to all of them and the girls reason for not going to more was that they kept getting lost. This really irritated me because I would think that you could go into a restaurant and find someone to give you directions.

Kyle Hagler was the guest judge. He was able to talk to the judges about how marketable he thought each girl was. Elimination came down to Chris and Jane. In the end Chris was sent home because the judges did not believe that she was taking it seriously.

At this point my favorite to win is still Chelsey. I feel like she wants it the most and she has the knowledge and personality to take her far.

Wanna be on Top?

To watch this episode click here!

I do not own any of these photos. They are the property of CWTV. To check out their website click here.

Ciao Bella!

Ciao Bella!

This week the girls were shipped off to Venice, Italy! The girls got there and did a photo shoot on a gondola. The idea was that they were put in groups of three, dressed in outfits from 1500 and 1600's Venice, or the time of Casanova. The girls were all trying to vie for Casanova's attention in the gondola. All of the girls did a pretty good job. At least one judge had one girl they liked, and they were all different. It started to rain towards the end of the photo shoot three of the girls were soaking wet when they were finished which was humorous.

After this photo shoot the girls were told that they were going to be shipped off to Milan. This is where the competition will end. Milan is the home base for Italian Vogue and IMG Models, both of which are part of the main prize, it makes sense for the girls to go there. The girls arrived in Milan and immediately rushed up to their house. ANTM always has a decked out house that the girls stay in. The girls usually stay in five-star quality houses/apartments. The apartment for these girls was more like a three-star. The girls were very disappointed. Tyra showed up and informed them that she chose this apartment because it is like what a working model really does live in. Since these girls are set to higher standards than the girls in the past, they get more of a reality check. That is essentially what this apartment was for a few of the girls.

After checking out their apartment they went to world famous Italian fashion house, Missoni. Milan is where Missoni is based. They were able to meet with Margherita Missoni, whose mother, Angela Missoni, owns part of the line and is the main designer. Margherita is the designer for accessories, the future head of Missoni, as well as a model for IMG. The girls got to wear designers for the fall fashion line and walk in front of Angela and Margherita Missoni. They were then informed that Margherita would be the guest judge that week.

The girls got to wear the Missoni clothes for panel. Now when this was filmed it was summer, the girls were wearing fall fashion. Chelsey and Liz almost passed out because they were so hot. The heat in the room was apparently really bad. All the girls got a least one good review by one of the judges. Elimination came down to Liz and Chris. Liz was sent home because she complained too much.

I was so happy to see Liz go home. She was so annoying. She complained all the time about every little thing and I can't imagine having to live with that. I really like Liz's look and pictures, but her personality is what turned me off to her. My favorite to win is Chelsey. I really think that she has the maturity and the fashion knowledge to do this job well.

Wanna be on Top?

To watch this episode click here.

I do not own any of these pictures. They are the property of CW. You can check out their website here.

Zac Posen

It was a runway show show-off. This week started with the girls going to do a runway show for world-famous designer Zac Posen. However, there were other models there, professionals, who were "Zac's Models". These models were told to do everything they could to undermine the girls confidence before the runway show. This was a challenge and many of the girls handled it poorly. They let the other models get under their skin and undermine their confidence. Ann was especially effected. She almost had a complete breakdown before the show started. In the end, Chelsey won the runway challenge and received 5 looks from Zac Posen's new line, Z Spoke.

There was no photo this week instead the girls had to do a commercial for a imaginary energy drink. The challenge of this was not only to memorize a script, but the girls were also on roller blades. The commercial was filmed right outside their house in Venice Beach, which is famous for roller blading. Nigel was the director for the girls this week.

This was a disaster all around. The girls were falling all over, no one had their lines memorized, and Ann started crying. Nigel had to have a stern talk with Liz who was laughing throughout the entire thing and did not appear to be taking it all that seriously.

Chris got best commercial and the elimination came down to Esther and Ann. The judges ended up keeping Ann, which means that Ester was eliminated.

This episode seemed a little tedious. There was nothing in it that I really liked. I am starting to want Chelsey to win though, so she is my new favorite to win. Zac Posen does not seem like that nice of a person. I really did not like him in this episode. I am hoping that things will start picking up because I am currently bored with this cycle.

Wanna be on Top?

Click here to watch this episode.

New episodes of ANTM are on the CW on Wed at 8/7c.

I do not own any of these photos. They are the property of The CW. You can check out there website here.

Famous Designers

Who wants to be a Grammy girl?

The girls went to visit the Grammy muesum to see all of the exhibits. The girls then got to meet Neil Portnow, President and CEO of The Recording Academy. He then proceeded to inform the girls that one of them will be chosen to be a "Grammy Girl" for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards that occurs in February 2011.

The girls were put in pairs and had to go pick out outfits that they think are worthy of a Grammy girl. The only thing was that the girls had to pick out the outfit for their partner and not themselves. The winner of the challenge was Kayla.

This weeks guest judge and fashion expert was a photographer Francesco Carrozzini. He took the girls photos during the photo shoot this week. The girls were each assigned a famous designer to impersonate in their photo. The designers were Alexander Wang (Ann), Vera Wang (Kendal), Marc Jacobs (Jane), Vivienne Westwood (Kayla), Carolina Herrera (Chelsey), John Galliano (Liz), Betsey Johnson (Chris), and Christophe Decarnin (Esther).

Liz won best photo this week and elimination came down to Kendal and Esther. In the end though, the judges did not feel that Kendal had the personality and overall presence to be a good model, so she was sent home.

The photos are Liz, who won best photo, and Chris.

I liked this weeks episode. I was really disappointed though that a lot of the girls did not know who their respective iconic designer was. These girls want to be in the fashion "business" and that means, at least to me, that they need to know who is in the "business". Chelsey was the only one who seemed to have any fashion knowledge at all. Liz's photo was really good, but I feel like she got lucky. She didn't know who the designer was, but when she was looking at photos of him she saw that he raised his eyebrow a lot, so that is what she did in her photos. She appeared to have just gotten lucky with her photo. She did break Ann's winning streak though so that was really good, but then Ann started complaining and losing her confidence. Ann sometimes gets on my nerves. She is so good at modeling, but is she doesn't win, or get compliments all the time she loses all of her confidence. She is really irritating when she is like that. All of the judges tell her week after week how awesome she is, PLEASE GAIN SOME CONFIDENCE FROM THAT!

Wanna be on Top?

To watch this episode click here.

I do not own any of these photos. They are the property of The CW. You can check out their website here.